Hong Kong & Macau Joint University Service Camp 港澳聯校服務營
The 5-day-4-night Hong Kong & Macau Joint University Service Camp was held successfully in early June, with volunteers spending 3 days serving the people living in Sham Shui Po district in Hong Kong and 2 days in Macau. The Service Camp aimed to support and empower the less privileged population in the two cities, such as elderly, low-income families and homeless people. It also served as a platform for participants from HKUST and University of Macau to gain understanding on the social issues in both cities, and to share their views and experiences about community service.
The service camp began with volunteers visiting a group of solitary elderly door-to-door in Sham Shui Po district to show their love and care as well as to introduce community resources to the elderly. After that, volunteers organized a story-telling session in "Kiddy Heart Canteen" for children from low-income families and presented several story-telling skills and reading resources available in the neighbourhood to the parents. They held a "Family Fun Day" the following day in Mei Ho House for grassroots families with kindergarten kids. The games were designed especially by the volunteers trying to strengthen the parent-child relationship. Volunteers then went to Tung Chau Street where they distributed food and daily necessities to the homeless community, letting them know that they are not forgotten. They ended their journey in Hong Kong with a visit to the mid-night market run by the underprivileged at Pei Ho Street and chatted with the hawkers to learn about the difficulties they encountered.
In Macau, volunteers gained insight into the drug abuse issue by talking to the person-in-charge of a drug rehabilitation centre and interviewed a few teenagers who have completed their rehabilitation. Echoing the service session in Hong Kong, volunteers paid home visits to a group of elderly, chatted with them and learnt about their living conditions and constraints. They also participated in an outreaching service and conducted interviews with the residents and shop owners in Iao Han District to deepen their understanding towards the Macau community.
To shed light on the social issues of the two cities, HKUST volunteers will create short video clips with scenes they captured during the service camp. The videos will be circulated on social media platform so to share the participants’ discoveries and feelings in this service camp with the HKUST community.
Through serving and reaching out to various needy communities in Sham Shui Po and Macau, participants were able to identify and understand the needs and challenges faced by them. Furthermore, all of the volunteers showed much concern towards the service recipients throughout the service camp, as most of them were engaged in post-trip activities with improved service for the recipients. All in all, making use of this platform, participants learned more and cared more about the social issues in the both cities.
